


Think of the Children

by citrusfriend



Series: Poetry [20]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Abuse, Abusive Parents, Anger, Assisted Suicide, Bad Parenting, Chest Binding, Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Dubious Morality, Eating Disorders, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Minor Violence, Moral Ambiguity, Murder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Recovery, Suicide Attempt, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Trauma, knowing someone will commit suicide and not stopping it, sort of? More like, unsafe binding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:27:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25063867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrusfriend/pseuds/citrusfriend
Summary: What happens to children who are not orphans,but have no parents regardless?
Series: Poetry [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1320233
Kudos: 7





	Think of the Children

What happens to the children who are victims  
before they are people?  
What happens to the children who are abused  
before they are loved?

What happens to the children whose parents threaten suicide?  
To the children who have already decided suicide is alright,  
as an excuse to commit it,  
so when their mother tells them  
that if they don't become better children,  
she'll kill herself,  
they say,  
"It's okay.  
It's okay, I will take care of your children."

What happens to children who are not orphans,  
but have no parents regardless?  
What happens to children who,  
instead of reading bedtime stories,  
make battle plans for what happens  
if both their parents die?  
What happens to children who teach themselves their own morals?  
Who forge themselves out of the ashes  
of the trauma their parents' values caused?

What happens to the children who build their morals wrong?  
Who save up money for a lawyer,  
for just in case their mother kills herself,  
because we will not let our father have custody  
of the only minor left in the family?  
Who do not know if that money will actually be used for a custody battle,  
or if it is for a plane ticket  
so that they can murder their father to keep the custody battle from even beginning.  
Who would not hide it, would not run,  
who would splay their father's body out like a trophy,  
like a reward, like redemption,  
like, "I _will not_ let you touch _anyone else,"_  
like, "I am doing the work my mother would not do for us,"  
like, " _This_ is the justice no one would do for us."

What happens to children  
who only learned how to be children in secret?  
What happens to children who bulldozed the path  
for their siblings  
because their parents only offered them shovels  
to dig graves?  
Who dig their own graves,  
but never die?  
What happens to the children who were molded into parents  
to fit a vacancy they left gaping, in favor  
of their still-unburied children's grave?  
What happens to the graves that become alive  
solely to take revenge on the children who never used them?

What happens to the children once the trauma is over?  
What happens to queer children who bind too long  
because they did not know that they could live long enough  
to have their ribs deform?  
What happens to suicidal children  
who try to starve themselves to death?  
What happens to recovering children  
who fight to start eating again,  
only to discover the organ damage?  
What happens to the children who have to live with consequences  
they thought they would let kill them?  
What happens to the children who _don't let it kill them?_

What happens to the children?  
What will happen to me?  
Do we grow up?  
Do we recover?  
Do we have to finally stop calling ourselves children?

If so, then what happens to the poets  
who were victims before they were people?  
What happens to the victims  
after they teach themselves to be people?  
What happens to the people  
who realise  
we were _never_ children?

Do we grow up?  
Do we recover?

**Author's Note:**

> 7/3/2020


End file.
